In case you were wondering I will be down at the County of Orange on the day of interviews providing our readers with a live blog of every single interview from start to finish. After that hold onto your hats for a live blog of deliberations leading up to the new OC Clerk-Recorder getting selected. Stay tuned for a potential interview with the new OC Clerk-Recorder in our new audio post format if I can snag them after the meeting.

This was an interesting read to go through all of these applications, cover letters, and resumes in order to figure out how these applicants are angling themselves for the position. Here area few items from the different resumes that stood out.

Larry Bales– He works for used to work for the County of Orange for over 30 years in the office of the Orange County Assessor.

Chris Norby– He puts OC Supervisor as his position as opposed to CA AssemblymanHe lists OC Supervisor as his previous employment with Orange County and mentions that he heard about the job from a County employee/friend. I find it interesting that he listed Supervisor Shawn Nelson (1 of the 5 votes) as another one of his references.

Hieu Nguyen– Other than Renee Ramirez he appears to be the only individual other than Renee Ramirez who has experience working in the OC Clerk-Recorders office. He also heard of the position from a County employee/friend. The one think I liked about his packet was that he included letters of reference from supporters including the very well-known businessman Dale Dykema.

Bruce Peotter– As I have stated before he is one of my personal favorites for this position along with Hieu Nguyen. I must admit though that I was surprised with his experience in the office of Public Administrator/Guardian that he applied for Clerk-Recorder instead. His resume/cover letter was the cleanest out of all applicants in terms of formatting and shows that he is extremely qualified for this position.

Harry Sidhu– This one will be tough as long as Shawn Nelson is still a Supervisor next week. In his cover letter he focuses on his private sector experience. In his resume he includes not only his Anaheim City Council experience but also his background as a mechanical engineer, real estate broker, and a business owner.

Michael J. Fox– I was totally hoping to read a filmography on this one but alas my dream was crushed. He learned about the position through Newspaper/Magazine and has a long list of cases he sites as being involved in that shows his background in law is solid.

Steven Madoff– He along with many others in the list learned about the position through Newspaper/Magazine. He is on my list of the most interesting applicants to sit down and have lunch with based on the stories he must have from his years of working for Paramount.

Steven Rosansky– Something is off with this application as he used a totally different application than everybody else that applied for the position. In terms of his cover letter and resume nothing specifically stood out to me other than his experience in Newport Beach as a Councilman, real estate broker, and business owner.

Roy Reynolds– He also states that he learned about the job through Newspaper/Magazine. He included an article that he wrote in the OC Register that referred to his firm conducting polling on behalf of the Costa Mesa Taxpayers Association. Apparently he does his political consulting business as a separate entity from his personal rapid transit consulting which I was unaware of.

Renee Ramirez– In my opinion she went from being the frontrunner to a longshot in a matter of months. She does mention her current occupation as being in the office of OC Clerk-Recorder. She has been employed at the office of the OC Clerk-Recorder since 1991 if I am reading her resume correctly. 2 of her most notable references include former Santa Ana City Manager/Police Chief Paul Walters and Yorba Linda Water Board Member Phil Hawkins.

OCInsider#33said

But Chris, look at her overall education in comparison. Not that I think it’s a deal breaker for either one. Just interesting he has worked in a managerial position for so long at the county and not continued
his education.

OC Insider #29 (aka Greg Diamond)said

Chris — same perspective here: Peotter, Nguyen, and Fox as the apparent standouts on paper (with Ramirez in her own puzzling category.) We’re not doing that well on this “maintaining partisan disagreement” thing. Then again, I don’t seem to have a Democrat to root for if I were so disposed.

Over at Le Jus, we have one person suggesting that we sniff around to find out why Peotter left the Public A/G’s office. What do you hear about this in your neck of the woods?

It looks to me as if #33 on my OCInsider team is correct about Nguyen: a certificate from a two-year and an “academy” graduation from Chapman. I consider that reason for suspicion — but I don’t consider it to be damning in and of itself. Relevant experience can overcome a lack of general ed classes.

Of greater concern with Nguyen — and I don’t mean this in a damning way either — is that impressive list of functions he’s performed for the past 6-7 years for the Board of Supes. How well has he done with them? One that caught my eye, for example, is handling of public records requests.

OCInsider#33said

OC Insider #77said

Greg Diamond, Michael Fox is an attorney whose practice seems to be working for mortgage servicers, probably on foreclosures. This is based on my reading of his resume, so my apologies if I am wrong.

He used to be a VP for Fidelity, the title insurer, whose wholly owned subsidiary Lender Processing Services and their subsidiary DOCX were the very ones behind the notorious robosigning scandal and their forged recorded documents, all of which were fraudulently notarized. By the way, the president of DOCX is in prison right now over that.

Do you think Michael Fox knows about this? It was on 60 minutes. Hardly a secret.

I think it’s possible that his former employer, Fidelity would be thrilled to have one of their guys there at the recorder’s office in an elected position. Expect them to pony up the political donations at election time!

OCInsider#33said

Depends on what Chairman Nelson and the Board agrees to as far as process. You would need a second on a motion to appoint someone. Not sure anyone has two votes going into the interviews. I am going to guess that Hieu Nguyen is the safe fall back vote after all the political favors are paid off during the first round. Unless it falls apart, I would think they will come up with someone Tuesday afternoon.